Conventionally, for stirring a beverage in a beverage cup, such as a cup of coffee or a cup of tea, a separate stirring means is used, such as a teaspoon or, in the case of disposable cups, sometimes also e.g. a wooden stick.
A drawback in this conventional way of stirring the beverage is that both hands are always needed for doing it when the cup is held in hand. However, there are situations in which one hand is needed for something else than holding the cup or stirring the beverage in it simultaneously when drinking from the cup or holding the cup in hand. A need for keeping one hand free during drinking the beverage in the cup or holding the cup in hand occurs, for example, when driving a car or when holding another object or piece relating to drinking the beverage, such as another piece of tableware (e.g. a saucer) or a foodstuff (e.g. a slice of bread, a bun, a cookie, or the like).
At present, mugs and other drinking cups are also known, which are equipped with some kind of a stirring means that can be applied simultaneously by the same hand in which the mug or beverage cup is held. A mug, in which the beverage can be stirred simultaneously by the same hand in which the mug is held, is disclosed in e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 6,471,390 B1. In this solution, the mug is equipped with a handle comprising a pump operable by a finger to produce pressurized air which is introduced in the mug. A check valve is provided in the handle of the mug, preventing the entry of liquid into the handle but enabling the entry of air from the inside of the handle into the liquid space of the mug. In other words, flows that cause stirring are generated by means of an air flow introduced in the liquid space. As a result, the flows causing stirring are primarily air bubbles, wherein liquid flows causing actual stirring remain relatively insignificant and inefficient. Moreover, the arrangement for stirring comprises several separate elements which increases the manufacturing costs of the mug a lot compared with a conventional mug.